Marc Blondel

University of Western Brittany (France)

Marc Blondel is Professor of Cell Biology at the Medical School of the University of Brest (France). He has expertise in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) genetics and molecular biology. His group develops yeast models for various human diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders (especially prion-based diseases), cancers and mitochondrial diseases. The basic idea is to obtain a yeast phenotype that is relevant for the considered disorders and then to look for modifiers of this phenotype. These modifiers can be positive or negative (that is, they may either suppress or exacerbate the phenotype) and they can be drugs or genes or any other biological or chemical moiety. These modifiers are then validated on mammalian cell-based models and then, if possible, in vivo.